202 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1888. 
to be on them and shall be surprised if anyone 
in the district can increase the numbers there 
stated. If this letter meets with no contradiction 
and leads residents in other districts to make 
similar deductions from their own knowledge of 
each district, my object in writing will be gained. 
I am sure you will agree with me that the sooner 
the true position of cinchona cultivation in the 
island is known, the better for those who have 
any left.— Yours faithfully, J. A. ROBERTS. 
CINCHONA TREES TWO YEABS OLD IN PUSSELLAWA. 
Estate. Estate. 
Attabage . . 10,000 Nugawella . . 35,000 
Dewatagas ..15,000 Peak Upper ..10,000 
Beaumont . . 00,000 Rajatalawa . . 20,000 
Good-Hcpe . . 10,000 Riverside . . 15,000 
Helbodde .. 15,000 Kosalie .. 5,000 
Kalogalla . . 50,000 Rotbschild . . 50,000 
Lemagastenne ..176,000 Sanquhar ..30,000 
Kanapediwatte .. 50,000 St. Cuthberts .. 15,000 
Melfort ..120,000 Stellenberg .. 5,000 
Moneragalla .. 10,000 
Total ..701,000" 
This is a valuable contribution to our knowledge, 
because we are at once able to institute compari- 
sons by estates and see where the errors occur. But, 
first, even Mr. Roberts is a little rash in his 
inferences ; for he says he is sure not more 
than one-quarter of our Directory return of trees, 
exist in Pussellawa : that would actually be 558,000, 
while he himself shows 701,000 trees. But now 
we come to comparisons and going over our Direc- 
tory return seriatim we would ask Mr. Roberts 
how it is we have got an estate " Datry " in his 
own name with 20 acres cinchona, not in his list ? 
The " 170 acres " of "coffee and cinchona" on Black 
Forest we suppose must have been cleared out of 
cinchona, though not reported to us, since it does 
not enter into Mr. Roberts' return V Delta how- 
ever has 17 acres " coffee and cinchona " not 
in Mr. Boberts' return ; and have Derby, Paragalla, 
Providence and Grove Hill no cinchona now, though 
reported ? Helbodde was returned to us with 208 
acres under cinchona, and yet, for this, only 
15,000 trees are credited ? On the other hand 
(and Mr, Beck should note this) for Lema- 
gastenne which has 17C acres under cin- 
chona, Mr. Roberts returns 176,000 trees, 
and for Melfort also, 1,000 trees per acre 
over 120 acres. On Upper Peak we have 180 
acres cinchona, but Mr. Roberts says there are 
only 10,000 trees. How about Rothschild however ? 
— our return was 376 acres under cinchona 
and Mr. Roberts only allows 50,000 trees. Perhaps 
we may get answers to some of these questions 
before finally entering Mr. Roberts' figures on our 
pages. However, on going over the Pussellawa returns 
again we see a great blunder was made by our 
correcter of the press in putting down million 
trees ; the figures as printed only work out 1,562,000 
according to the estate returns ; while with 
the corrections for Black Forest and other places 
patent to us, this would come down to 1 J million. 
But we do not think Mr. Roberts can generalize 
from the case of Pussellawa. We do not think it 
likely any of the Uva districts can show many 
corrections, and there after all lies the main portion 
of our planted cinchona now. Meantime this is how 
we stand : — 
Cinchona Tkefs ajioye 2 Years old in Ceylon. 
Directory as Printed in Corrections as By 
Table : No. Trees. given above, critics. 
Badulla . . 3,986,000 
Dikoya . .. 1,515,000 
Dimbula . . 6,123,000 4,500,000 1 million 
(Mr. Beck) 
Hapntale .. 3,071,000 
Hewaheta .. 1,206,000 
Mftdulsima and 
HewaEliya.. 2,568,000 
Pussellawa .. 2,232,000 1,200,000 701,000 
(Mr. Roberts) 
Udapussellawa.. 3,033,000 
All other dis- 
tricts .. 11,421,000 
But after all, as we have said, the men who 
regulate the bark market look far more to our 
exports and the probable estimates for the future 
of bark, than to calculations of the number of 
growing trees. No doubt the latter mayhavesorus 
bearing on the value of cinchona property hen-, 
though even that again must be judged chiefly by 
the future of the enterprise in Java and Bolivia. 
What we should like just now to learn (and what 
we have no doubt cinchona dealers would value much 
too) is how far our Directory estimates of the future 
of bark exports from Ceylon can be justified, when 
we put down 9 million lb. for season 1838-9 ; 
7 millions for 1889-90 ; and 6 millions for the two 
succeeding years. Are these figures too large and 
is there as much chance of a sudden collapse 
of exports from Ceylon as there was of the totally 
unexpected large rise from 7J to nearly 12 million 
lb. between 1883 and 1884 ? Of course it is a 
matter of importance to have the number of growing 
trees as a guide in estimating the exports ; but 
we do not suppose even with the criticism of 
Messrs. Beck and Roberts, that the above export 
figures are likely to be much disturbed. One local 
mercantile house specially interested, last year 
put down the two following seasons as likely 
to give 20 million lb- bark altogether ; and if 
we send 11£ millions this season, that would still 
leave 8J millions lb. as likely to go forward 
between 1st October 1888 and 30th September 1889 
TOBACCO CULTIVATION IN THE DUTCH 
EAST INDIES. 
The Bulletin du Musee Commercial, in an article upon 
the tobacco cultivation in the Dutch East Indies, says 
that the plant is cultivated iu two different manners, 
according to whether it is iuteuded for exportation or 
local consumption. The home consumer prefers the 
long stalk leaf, and cares very little for the ground iu 
which it is grown. When a plot of ground is chosen, 
cither in or out of the dead, or village, it is sown 
after the weeds have beeu pulled up, and without 
being even dug up. If there does not happen to 
be sufficient natural shade for the young plants, they 
are covered with cocoa leaves. The end of the rainy 
season is the time usually chosen for sowing. In the 
morning or afternoon, seed mixed with sand or ashes 
is spread over the ground ; it is then watered and 
covered with straw, in order to prevent the rains 
washing the seed away, and to keep the ground fresh 
in the middle of the day. The seed commences to 
sprout at the end of fifteen or twenty days. It is 
then necessary to guard agaiust caterpillars, which 
have a preference for the shaded plants. At the 
end of fifty or sixty days, the planter for home con- 
sumption con^ders that the young plants are strong 
enough to transplant, and then commences to prepare 
the fields where the tobacco is to be cultivated. A 
preference is shown, as a rule, to the dry grounds, 
or tegals, as it is believed that tobacco cultivated 
in these is stronger than that grown in sawahs, or 
damp ground. Before taking the young plants from the 
nursery grounds they are well watered, and the strong- 
est are first transplanted in rows about three feet apart. 
Iu this operation the farmer is assisted by bis family, 
and it usually takes place iu the afternoon. When the 
family is not large enough to assist in the woik, friends 
aud neighbors are called in to help him. A plantation 
seldom contains more than 3,000 plants. After plant- 
ing, the young plants are again watered, and are pro- 
tected from the rays of the sun by being covered with 
